‘We haven’t…’: KL Rahul admits a BIG fact about Team India ahead of ODI against South Africa

Stand-in ODI skipper KL Rahul on Saturday conceded that Indian batters’ repeated struggles against spin, especially on home tracks, remain a concern but he didn’t have a “definitive answer” to the decline of their traditional strength. His comment comes amid a worrying pattern of Indian batting line-up’s repeated buckling against spinners on home tracks in Test cricket over the last two seasons — once their fortress.

New Zealand in 2024 and then South Africa recently whitewashed India 3-0 and 2-0 respectively, on the back of relentless spin bowling led by left-arm spinners Mitchell Santner, Ajaz Patel (NZ) and and off-spinner Simon Harmer (SA) on pitches that had dollops of turn.

“We haven’t played spin well enough in the last couple of seasons. I really don’t know why we did it earlier and why we aren’t doing it now. I don’t have a definitive answer. All we can do is to look at how to get better individually and as a batting group,” Rahul said on the eve of the first ODI against South Africa here.

Rahul said the batters will have to explore technical and tactical adjustments and it will be a long haul.

“It won’t change overnight. We’ll look at what improvements we need and hopefully by the time the Sri Lanka and Australia series come around, we’ll be better prepared. We’ll also reach out to seniors who played spin exceptionally well,” he added.

Echoing the concern, former India spinner Ravichandran Ashwin recently said that India’s “pathetic” batting against spin has made them “probably one of the poorest spin-playing nations in the world.”

Rahul said Indian batters must individually “seek answers” and fine-tune their technique if they are to reclaim their traditional edge against spinners.